The Walking dead: The final season
by The Bandit Named Outlaw
Summary: Tails has been through hell. He never found his parents, he had been travelling for a long time, has a kid to take care of, had to fight in a war, and now he's found a place he could call home. However, Things do not go as planned, and it's up to Tails and Clementine to help the school. TailsxClementine story. Hope you enjoy. Took me since January to write.


Episode 1: Yesterday is Gone

A/N: This story will contain Anthros, humans, and animals.

A yellow anthropomorphic fox was sitting in front of a campfire watching a young kangaroo taking apart and struggling to put an M9 Beretta back together. The fox was named Miles Prower, nickname was Tails, due to him possessing two tails rather than one. He was 16 years old. He was wearing a black leather jacket with black fingerless gloves to match. He had a red sleeveless jacket going over the leather jacket, allowing his leather sleeves to be seen. He wore a pair of camouflage cargo pants and red and white sneakers. His baseball cap was a bit worn out from years of being worn. Under his baseball cap he had dreadlocks. They were medium in length, only reaching to his shoulders. On his back, had two different sheaths. On his lower back he had a sheath for a red bladed machete. Over his left shoulder as a sheath for a katana. He had one more sheath on his hip, to the opposite side of his pistol holster was a knife in its sheath, with the handle possessing knuckle dusters.

The kangaroo he was watching was named Ajax Francis. Ajax was 5 years old, and wore a blue hoodie with grey sleeves, a pair of jeans and, for lack of a better option, bandage wrapped in the middle of his feet. Due to his feet being large, it was very difficult to find shoes for him. He also wore the purple baseball cap with the Australian flag that his late Brother used to wear.

He successfully reassembles the gun, he looked at Tails.

"Again." Tails said. Ajax nodded, and dismantled the gun to try and put it back together again.

Resting in Tails's lap was the head of a German Shepherd/husky/wolf mix. Having mostly grey and white fur, he resembled a wolf. He also had heterochromia. His left eye was light blue and her right eye was brown. He wore a black bandana around his neck. He was a rather large dog and athletically big. His name was Ripjaw.

Tails was also leaning against a lying down Friesian horse, equipped with a leather saddle and pouches in the saddle. The horse had a relatively long mane and had feathered feet. The horse's name was Onyx.

Ajax reassembled the gun for the second time. A lot easier than last time.

"I did it." Ajax said with a smile. Tails smiled back at him.

"Good job Bucky." Tails said. Ajax looked at him and frowned a little.

"Why do you call me Bucky?" Ajax asked. Tails looked at him with a slightly confused expression.

"Is something wrong with it?" Tails asked.

"No, it's just. It's not my real name. Why do you call me that?"

"It's my nickname for you." Tails answered. Ajax tilted his head.

"What's that?"

"Nickname, it's like…. Well, when your born into the world, you are given a name by your parents. They named you Ajax. When you grow up, people around you call you a name that fits how you act." Tails explained best he could.

"How does Bucky fit with how I act?" Ajax asked. Tails smirked at this.

"Well, you buck me up. You have been doing that ever since you couldn't talk." Tails answered.

"I buck you up?" Ajax asked.

"Yeah, to buck someone up is another way to say to cheer someone up. Don't say it around other people though. The word buck might sound like something else." Tails explained. Ajax nodded in understanding.

"Okay." Ajax said. His stomach could be heard growling.

"You hungry Ajax?" Tails asked.

"Kinda." Ajax answered. He reached into his horse's saddle pouch. He pulled out a candy bar.

"Well, here you go. Last one." Tails said. Ajax took it and looked at the back of it.

"M-milk Cho-choco-let?" Ajax questioned.

"There you go. Milk Chocolate." Tails said.

"Sugar. S-soy Lecithin, Cocoa butter, Lac-"

"Okay okay. You're doing good. Now you're making me hungry." Tails said. Ajax nodded, opened the candy bar. He proceeded to eat the bar.

"Este es muy de…. Uh? Deli?"

"Try Sabroso. It's easier." Tails said.

"Este es muy sabroso." Ajax said. Tails smirked.

"Bastante bien Ajax. Pretty good. Also, when you're using it in a sentence like that, it's Esto, not Este." Tails said.

"Es…to." Ajax pronounced. Tails nodded in approval.

"Tails, what was the language called again?" Ajax asked.

"Spanish." Tails said.

"How do you know how to speak it?" Ajax asked. Tails paused for a minute.

"Well… when I was a baby, my dad was teaching me how to speak English, my mother taught me Spanish on the side. It was kind of easy for me to pick up on the languages." Tails said. Ajax tilted his head, not from confusion, but from interest.

"I wish I knew Spanish." Ajax said.

"Well, I can still teach you a few things Chamaco." Tails said with a smile. Ajax looked confused.

"Chamaco means kid." Tails said. Ajax lets out a yawn.

"Come on, get some sleep. I'll keep watch." Tails said. Ajax walked over to Tails and slept to his side. Tails wrapped his arm around him.

After a few hours, Tails went to sleep himself.

((A few hours later.))

Tails was on Onyx's back with Ajax while the horse walked on the road. Ripjaw was walking alongside Onyx, given there was no more room on Onyx.

"Tails?" Ajax asked.

"What is it Bucky?" Tails asked him.

"Will Ripjaw ever have puppies?" Ajax asked.

Tails thought for a minute before smiling.

"Maybe one of these days, but you know what has to happen beforehand right?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, he has to meet a girl dog first." Ajax said. "I hope he can have puppies soon, I'd like to take care of one."

"They are a very big responsibility." Tails warned.

"I know, but you'll teach me right? Like you taught me everything else?" Ajax said.

"Sure thing Bucky." Tails said with a smile.

Onyx continued walking on the road before Tails saw smoke in the air. Tails steered Onyx in the direction of the smoke and saw a totalled car.

"Somebody was having a bad day." Tails said. Ajax looked at the car.

"Think there are any supplies?" Ajax asked.

"Time to find out." Tails said as he hopped off the horse. He pulls his machete off of his back and approached the car. Ripjaw walked with him as Tails observed the car. He looked at Ajax and shook his head.

"There's a train station over there." Ajax said as he pointed in its direction. Tails looked and saw the train station. He walked over to Onyx and grabbed an empty backpack out of the saddle.

"Onyx, stay." Tails said. Onyx huffed as if to confirm he understood. Ajax hopped off of Onyx and walked to Tails.

Tails put his backpack on and walked to the entrance of the train station, and saw walkers surrounding the area. Tails gestured for Ajax to hide with him. The two hid by some bushes as Tails observed the area. One specific building caught Tails's eye, mostly because was seemingly surrounded by walkers.

"Tails, Muertos." Ajax said.

"I see them." Tails said. Tails crouched down. Ajax stood next to him.

"What should we do?" Ajax asked him.

"Well, the Muertos have surrounded an area, which means?" Tails asked him.

"Either there was a noise or someone inside that got their attention." Ajax said.

"That's right. which normally means that there are supplies that we need to, or people that we can help." Tails said. Tails walked closer to the train station, remaining unseen by the walkers. Tails noticed a bell and a sign.

"Hey Ajax, do you see what I see?" Tails asked. Ajax looked following Tails's gaze.

"I see a way to distract the Muertos." Ajax said. Tails smirked and looked at Ajax.

"Okay Ajax, what's the plan?" Tails asked him.

"W-what? You're asking me?" Ajax asked.

"Sure, you're getting smarter everyday, so why not?" Tails asked him. Ajax looked at the Bell and then the cabin.

"We can use the Bell to distract the Muertos and then find a way inside." Ajax said. Tails rubbed his head.

"Good plan Bucky." Tails said.

"Mjolnir ready for action?" Tails asked him. Ajax pulled out a medium sized hatchet and nodded.

"Good choice. Okay, so what do you want me to do?" Tails asked him. For most, allowing a five and a half year old to think of a plan to deal with walkers to get in a cabin wasn't very smart, but for Tails, this was an opportunity to see how much Ajax has learned.

"Can you distract the Muertos and then be at the door?" Ajax asked him. Tails gave a thumbs up.

He gives a small whistle.

"Ripjaw, come on boy." Tails said. Ripjaw panted as he was ready for action. "Are you ready for action?"

Ripjaw, knowing that he shouldn't bark, moves his paw towards Tails as if Tails said 'shake'.

"Alrighty, let's go. Ajax, you remember what to do if you get in trouble, right?" Tails asked him. Ajax pointed to the tree.

"Take out any I think I can, climb high ground and wait for you." Ajax said.

"Bingo." Tails said. He goes to a crouched position.

"Ripjaw, sneak." Tails said. Ripjaw lowered his body to the ground as if he was hunting.

Tails started to sneak his way over to the bell. As he made his way to it, he looked at Onyx as he was still by the car.

"Derailed train, totalled turned over car, everyone just seems to have someone seems to have a bad day." Tails said. He grabbed the rope and rang the bell three times before hiding. Most of the walkers started making their way to the bell.

Tails and Ripjaw snuck back to Ajax undetected, who after the Walkers got distracted, snuck over to one of the buildings.

"Solid plan Bucky." Tails said with a smile. Tails looked at the building and around it. "Hmm, a lot of broken glass." Tails observed.

"You think people where trying to break in?" Ajax asked.

"No, I think something from the inside broke the windows." Tails observed. The windows in the front were still intact.

"What makes you say that?" Ajax asked him.

"Well, if someone tried to break in, the glass would be on the inside of the building, but this glass is on the outside." Tails said.

"Could it have been someone trying to break out?" Ajax asked.

"Maybe, you remember what to do when dealing with a new building?" Tails asked him.

"Be careful…. Look everywhere. Listen for muertos. And… and…" Ajax struggled to remember the last bit.

"Check for-"

"Check for alternate escape routes." Ajax quickly interrupted.

"That's right." Tails said. Ajax smiled. Tails looked and the walkers were still distracted by the Bell, they surrounded it, but, they blocked off that escape route.

"Want me or Ripjaw to go in first?" Tails asked. Ajax petted Ripjaw's head.

"Ripjaw should go first. He can sniff out anything we miss." Ajax said. Tails nodded.

"Ripjaw, search." Tails said. Ripjaw hopped in through the broken window and sniffed around. Ripjaw barked twice. Meaning that the coast is clear.

Tails checked the door, and it was unlocked. He walked inside with his Red bladed machete in hand. Ajax soon walked in after him.

Tails observed the room, and saw a moved mattress and a floor door.

Ajax had his hatchet and pistol ready.

Tails gripped his machete tightly before opening the floor door, lifting up his machete and ready to strike anything that comes out. There was a splatter of food on the ground.

"Anything?" Ajax asked. Tails looked into the room, and saw that a lot of the food in there had been destroyed, but there was still a lot that they could salvage.

"Looks like we hit the motherload Bucky." Tails said. Ajax looked in.

"Holy shit." Ajax said. Tails looked at Ajax.

"Hey, watch the swears pal." Tails lightly scolded. Ajax's ears flopped

"Sorry." Ajax said. "I meant Shoot."

"You know what, I'll allow you to curse. Just this once." Tails said. Ajax smiled.

"Shit balls." He said with a smile. Tails chuckled and took his backpack off of his back. He unzips it and pulls out what looked like a duffel bag.

"Alright, looks like there's going to be enough for us to fill out this bag and then more.

"How much are we packing?" Ajax asked.

"Fill the bag up." Tails said. Ajax hoped down and started to pick up jars and hand them to Tails, who put them in the bag.

It didn't take long for the bag to end up getting full.

"There's still a lot of food down here. What should we do?" Ajax asked.

"You still got that red chalk?" Tails asked. Ajax handed him the red chalk. Tails picked up the bag and walked outside.

"If we're lucky, we might have to come back here and resupply. So, always mark it so we can remember this place." Tails said. He draws an R on the side of the building. Ajax walk inside the building and came out with a jar of what look like honey. He tries to open the jar.

"Alright, now whenever we are low on supplies we can just look for-" Tails looked at Ajax. "Ajax!" He silently exclaimed.

Ajax finally manages to get the top off of the jar, but he was trying so hard that by the time he did, he ended up sending the jar flying and having a break against the ground. The sound managed to get the attention of the nearby walkers.

"Oh mierda." Tails cursed. Knowing that he would have to make a run for it, tails puts his book bag on the ground. Knowing the routine, Ajax gets in the backpack, exposing only his upper half. Tails zipped up the sides of the backpack and put it back on his back. he then puts the duffle bag over his shoulder, using a strap to keep it on.

The walkers we're now onto Tails, Ajax and Ripjaw.

"Ripjaw! Escape!" Tails said. Ripjaw barks and finds a way to maneuver out of the herd. Tails pulls out the machete and runs out. Walker's slowly started to surround them. Tails Tails then sees an exposed path leading to the top of the train car. He used the machete to kill Walkers that we're getting too close. One of the walkers got lucky and grabbed him from the side, it attempts to bite him in the neck was blocked it with his arm. Thanks to the leather jacket, it wasn't able to bite through, Ajax grab the Walker and killed it with two hatchet blows to the Head. After pushing said Walker off of him, he looked and he saw an opportunity to get up the side of the train. Tails seized the opportunity, put the machete up and climbed up the side of the car.

After grabbing the top of the car, he pulls himself up, just barely escaping the grasp of a Walker. Tails ran to the end of the car that was leading back towards the Bell. He prepared himself, jumps off, and lands in a stumble as he continued to run.

Tails got to Onyx and hopped on his back.

"Ride!" He said. Onyx reared and started to gallope. A walker was walking in the path. Tails used his machete to decapitate it before putting his Machete back. After Onyx was running for a good minute Tails stopped him and looking around.

"Are we safe?" Ajax asked. Tails looked around and saw no walkers.

"We're good." Tails said. Ajax climbed out of the backpack and looked at Tails.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean-"

"Don't worry about it. Just remember that you got to be careful with what makes noise pal." Tails said. Ajax looked at him and nodded. Tails let out a whistle and a few seconds later, ripjaw ran back to them.

"Good boy Ripjaw." Tails said. Ripjaw barked as he wagged his tail. "Come on, we'll find a good place to set up camp, then we can see what we got. Sound good?" Tails asked. Ajax smiled happily.

"Yeah, that would be-" Ajax was interrupted when Tails was shot off Onyx via arrow to his torso. He falls off the horse and hit his head. Onyx started rearing from being startled. Due to shock, Tails soon passed out.

"No!" Was the last thing he heard before losing consciousness entirely.

(())

Tails slowly started to wake up. He looked around the room and saw that he was in some kind dorm room and he saw a dresser where there was a first aid kit.

He looked at himself. He had been stripped of his sleeveless hoodie and his leather jacket, leaving him shirtless with the exception of the bloody bandages currently wrapped around his lower torso. His matress was also covered in blood. Dried blood, giving of the implication that he had been wear he was for longer than an hours. However thankfully, he was still wearing his trademark hat.

"Shit. Ajax!" Tails called, he tried to get out of the bed, but he soon realized that his wrists were taped together and to the bed rail.

Tails looked at the bind and used his mouth to bite the tape holding him to the bed, freeing him. However, his wrists were still binded together. He stands up.

"Okay, If I remember correctly." Tails said. He put his hands above his head and then swings his arms downwards, chicken winging his elbow to the sides and making his hands strike his stomach. This managed to break the binds.

"Thank you krav maga." Tails said as he took the tape off of his wrists, flinching as it ripped out some of his fur.

Tails started to look around the room. He looked on the floor and saw the blood leading to his bed.

"Looks like I was bleeding a lot." Tails said. He continued to look around and looked in the closet. His leather jacket was there.

"How courteous." Tails said. He goes into one of his pockets and pulls out Stormbreaker. He put it in his pocket and started to put his leather jacket on. He zips it up and walks out of the room.

Tails turned the corner only to hear footsteps. He picks out where he just walked and saw a female redhead walk towards the room.

The girl looked into the room and looked shocked. Tails had the option to either attack her, or to get her attention. He took the knife out of his pocket and held it like he was ready to use it, but he didn't move in to attack her, instead he whistled for her attention as he walked towards her.

She looked towards the whistle only to be startled when Tails was literally right in front of her. She noticed the knife and froze up.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you unless you make me." Tails said. The teenage girl nodded.

"Just tell me what your name is and where I am and I will put the knife away." Tails said.

"I….. I'm Ruby. And you are in Ericson's boarding school for troubled children." Ruby said. As promised, Tails put his knife away. Ruby let out a sigh of relief.

"I apologize, but waking up in a new location makes me kind of jumpy. If you don't mind me asking where's-"

"Your boy is in the basement. He's calming down your dog, who took quite a few chunks out of some of us when we brought you here. Your horse is tied to the flagpole." Ruby said.

"Thank you, now where's my stuff?" Tails asked. Ruby pointed to the room to his left.

"Thank you." Tails said. Tails walked over to the music room, which was currently empty. He sees his backpack next to a chair and his sleeveless hoodie was on the chair. He started to make his way to them. That was until he noticed the piano. He looked to his left, he looked to his right and walked over to the piano. he played two notes on the piano before flinching and grabbing his ears.

"Gah! Damn. That hasn't been tuned in years." Tails said. he walked over and began to tune a piano. After what felt like 4 minutes, it was finally tuned. With his right hand he started playing one part of Fur Elise.

"That one was for you Julie-Su."

After about three and a half minutes, he walks back out with his normal supplies and attire. he made sure that his normal pistol (usp.45) was loaded before pulling out the M9 Beretta and making sure that was loaded as well. He then started to walk outside. The first thing he did was walk over to Onyx, who was pacing around the pole and stomping the ground with a swishing tail. Upon seeing Tails, the signals of distress stopped. Tails walked over and untied Onyx. Onyx draped his head over Tails's shoulder rested his chin on Tails's back. Tails smirked and patted Onyx's neck.

"I'm safe Onyx." Tails said with a smirk. After finishing, Tails looked at the area he was in.

He took a minute to process his surroundings. upon doing so, he noticed a trapdoor reading to what he suspected was a basement.

He walked over to the basement, opened the latch, and then the door. He lets out a whistle.

Ripjaw came running out of the basement and pounced right on top of tails. He was wearing some kind of makeshift muzzle, but that didn't stop him from affectionately rubbing against tails in an excited matter.

"Easy boy. Sit." Tails said. Ripjaw obeyed and sat. Tails smiled and kneeled down and removed the muzzle. Ripjaw happily licked his face.

As Tails was kneeled down, Ajax runs up from the basement and quickly hugged him.

"Hey Bucky. How are you doing kiddo?" Tails asked him.

"I was so scared." Ajax said, his voice shaking.

"I know you were, but you kept calm, and-"

"Remained Level headed, just like you said." Ajax said with a smile.

"That's right." Tails said. He took off his back pack and handed him his hatchet and gun.

Ajax observed and inspected the gun.

"Looks good." Ajax said as he put the gun away.

"You sure that's a good idea?" A male voice said. Tails looked up and saw a teen, this one, like tails, was an Anthropomorphic. He looked like a mix between an American badger and kangaroo. He wore a light blue hoodie shirt, a pair of jeans and black boots. He also had a bandage around his left arm.

"We've already got one underage kid with a gun here, we don't really need another." The badgeroo said.

"Trust me on this, he knows how to use it." Tails said.

"Yeah, maybe he might know a little too well. I was just making sure." The badgeroo said. "My name's Azrael Jazavac, but most folks here call me Bill."

"Tails. Nickname not my Real name." Tails said. "This is Ajax."

"Hi." Ajax said. Azrael waved at Ajax.

"What happened to your arm?" Tails asked him.

"Well your dog was kind of protective about you when we were dragging you here, he decided to take a large bite out of my arm." Azrael said.

"Sorry about that." Tails said.

"Hey don't worry about that. It was nothing compared to buckleberry finn right there. Good thing Ruby is good with horses. As for your dog, Ajax was able to calm him down pretty quick. You got him trained pretty well, but he was still pretty aggressive. As you can see, we have to force a muzzle on him and put him in the basement. Which I had the displeasure of having to do." Azrael said.

"I appreciate you not shooting Ripjaw, Lord knows a lot of people would have." Tails said.

"Ripjaw huh? considering the amount of bites he tried to take out of a lot of the people here, I find that name very very fitting." Azrael said.

"So, Ericson's boarding school for troubled youth, what is this place like?" Tails asked.

"How did you know where you were?" Azrael asked.

"I asked Ruby." Tails said.

"So you're already familiar with our medic. That's good. Well, I won't bore you with the blah blah introduction, but, just know that there are 16 of us here. 20 counting you and the girl we just got."

"Girl you just got?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, believe it or not, it was a pretty big car crash and explosion in the forest, down by the train station that that girl and her kid suffered." Azrael explained.

"So that's why the muertos were surrounding that area." Tails said.

"You were there? Also Muertos?" Azrael asked.

"Yeah, I was. Looks like a pretty big mess. Found a shit ton of supplies though." Tails said.

"Swear." Ajax said. Tails chuckled and ruffled his hat.

"Quite the coincidence, what the heck are muertos by the way?"

"That's what I call those things out there. They died, but for some reason they're not dead. They're both dead and alive, but they're more dead than anything else." Tails said.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say Muertos means dead." Azrael said in a questioning tone. Tails nodded in response.

"Rosie! Where the hell is she!?" Another male's voice asked. Tails look towards the gate and saw four teenagers and one kid around ajax's age.

"What are they on about?" Tails asked.

"That explosion brought quite a few walkers, amd they cut off The hunting party, Marlon and the others are about to help clear a path." Azrael said. Tails looked towards the gate and started walking towards them.

"Where are you going?" Azrael asked.

"Might as well throw a helping hand." Tails said. Ajax and Ripjaw followed them.

(())

"We've got a hunting party out there trying to get back inside. Need our help to clear the way." The blonde male teen with a mullet said. Tails managed to recognize Violet and Louis, but didn't recognize the girl, the kid, or the guy with the mullet.

"Seems to be a lot more than usual." The teen said.

Tails let out a whistle. The Quanto looked at him.

"You got room for a few more?" Tails asked them.

"We could use the extra help. However, you think you're good to kill some deadheads?" The teen asked.

"Trust me." Tails took his katana off his back. "I killed muertos in worse conditions."

"Holy shit. Is that a katana?" Louis asked.

"Darn right." Tails said.

"Glad to see you in fighting condition. By the way the name is Marlon." The blonde male introduced.

"Violet." Violet introduced.

"Louis." Louis introduced. Louis had a bruised cheek from Tails's first impression.

"Clementine." The girl with the baseball cap said.

"AJ." The young kid introduced.

"Tails. Nice to meet you all of you." Tails said.

"I'm Ajax." Ajax said.

"Alright boys and girls! They're started to fill in!" A young boy on a makeshift watchtower said.

"You heard Willy. Let's go." Marlon said as he opened the gate. Tails took a knee. Ajax climbed into Tails's backpack, zipping the sides up. Mjolnir in his hands, ready for action.

"Um….. that a good idea?" Louis asked.

"Trust me. It works." Tails said. Tails looked at Louis's chair leg.

"You like it? It's a chair leg. I call it Chairles." Louis said. Tails chuckled.

"Howdy Chairles, this is Katrina." Tails said as he showed his katana.

"You and me are going to get along just fine." Louis said. Tails walked out and soon Followed Clementine.

"Clem? Lemme help!" AJ called. Tails stopped and looked at Clementine as she turned to look at AJ.

"I need you to watch my back. Call me from inside if you see anything. Cool?" Clementine asked. AJ's face dropped.

"Okay." AJ said slightly dejected.

"See you on the other side." Clementine said as she stood up and walked towards the others and pulled out her knife.

She met up with Tails, who actually waited for her. Then Tails started walking.

"Clem! Monsters!" AJ warned.

Tails walked ahead of her so not to accidentally hit her with the katana.

Violet kills one of the Walkers with a cleaver and Louis kill the one with the chair leg.

Tails approach two Walkers and used the katana to cut both of their heads off. Another walker appeared to his left.

"I want that one." Ajax said. Tails smirked and walked towards the walker. He kicks it in the knee, stunning it. He then turns so Ajax could kill it with the hatchet.

Tails looked up and there was another walker approaching.

Tails walked over to it, kicked it in the knee before decapitating it.

"Good kill Tails." Violet complimented. Tails gave a thumbs up. Tails looked and saw Clementine kill a walker that had grabbed her.

"Whoa! Nice one Clementine!" Louis said. "Could use a little more, finesse though. Watch and learn!" Louis said. He gets the attention of one of the Walkers, and then cut the rope causing the boulder to fall on top of it.

"Traps? Groovy." Tails said with a smirk.

"There's a whole bunch of traps laying around the area for these asshats. They are all marked so keep a lookout!" Louis said. Clementine nodded in understanding. Tails looked for the traps and saw a walker step into one.

He walked over and cut the rope, causing the trap to drop a swinging tree trunk into a walker.

"Nice." Tails said.

"Tails, the girl's in trouble." Ajax pointed out.

Tails looked and saw that Clementine got grabbed by one of the Walkers, she was capable of fighting it off, but she did not see the Walker to her left.

"Not for long." Tails said. He quickly made his way to her, and decapitated the incoming Walker. Getting Clementine enough time to stab the walker in front of her. She looked at tails.

"Thanks." She said.

"Don't mention it. want my advice? If you see they're about to grab you, smack their hands out of the way. It works." Tails said with a smile and a wink as he walked off. Clementine looked at an incoming walker and waited as it approached.

Once it attempted to grab her, she used her free hand to smack the arms away, causing the Walker to stumble. She then stabbed the walker in the head and killed it.

"Hey. That actually worked." Clementine said. She watched as Tails activated another one of the traps, and killed the final Walker within the vicinity.

Marlon looked up and saw three teens running with torches, and went to meet with them.

"Over here!" Marlon said. Tails and the others followed him. A female and two males met up with Marlon.

"Nice timing, we're not going to be able to hold them off much longer." Violet said.

"No kidding. Where'd all these Walkers come from?" The female asked.

"We can talk about that later, but now let's get back inside the gates. Keep an eye out for stragglers." Marlon said as he started to make his way back. Tails and the others followed him.

Clementine walked next to Tails.

"That little bit of advice you gave me, it's genuine. I appreciate that." Clementine said. Tails looked at her with a smile. "You know, you're not too bad with that thing."

"Thanks." Tails said. He looked forward and saw a few more walkers. "Let's kill the rest of these Muertos, we don't need them leading more of their kind back to the camp." Tails said. He stuck his katana through the neck and skull of the walker in front of him. Clementine looked down and saw a walker with an arrow in its back crawling towards her. She didn't hesitate to bring up the knife and stabbed it through its head.

One of the guys on the hunting team, killed a downed Walker with an arrow

"Piece of shit." He said. he walked over to retrieve the arrow, unaware of the Walker behind him.

"I hate this cleanup bullshit." He said. He turned around and the walker grabbed him and pinned him to the log.

Tails let out a whistle, and Ripjaw ran towards the Walker, pins it to the ground and bites its skull. It didn't take long for the Walker to die.

Ripjaw looked towards tails and wagged his tail.

He was covered in quite a lot of blood, implying that he was killing a lot of walkers.

"Good boy Ripjaw." Tails said as he pet him. Clementine looked at ripjaw nervously. Will made her even more nervous, emerging from the bushes was a brown American bulldog.

"There you are Rosie." Marlon said. Like ripjaw, she had blood all over her muzzle, implying the killing of walkers.

Clementine looked very scared at the moment. She had a bad experience with a dog once, and she was currently surrounded by two of them.

"You okay Clementine?" Tails asked her.

"I had a bad experience with a dog once." Clementine said. Tails looked at her with a small smile as he scratched Ripjaw's ears.

"Well, ripjaw here can help you get over it. Aside from murdering muertos and protecting me whenever I'm unconscious, this guy is one playful, energetic, cuddle buddy."

Ripjaw barked in acknowledgement.

"Thanks dude. That Walker came out of nowhere." The male teen said.

"All right all right, fun's over. Let's get inside. It's getting dark and I'm starving." Marlon said.

"You're not the only one." Clementine said. Tails held the Katana tight as he walked back with the others.

"How'd it go out there?" Marlon asked the teen male to his right.

"How do you think it went?" The teen responded sarcastically.

"Be nice Aasim." The female teen said.

"The safe zone's nearly dry-I could barely find enough for tonight. We're going to have to scout out further if we want food for the winter." Aasim said.

Marlon paused for a second as he looked at Tails, Ajax, and Clementine.

"We'll talk about it later." Marlon said.

"Bullshit, we should talk about this right now-" Aasim said as he stood in Marlon's way.

"I said later dammit." Marlon said with a slight shove of the shoulder.

Tails looked at this and gave off a look of disapproval.

"You're pretty good with that thing." Clementine said to him. Tails looked at her with a smile.

"You see, I've been studying the long ancient teachings of watching kung fu movies on TV." Tails jokes. Clementine giggles a little.

"Still standing I see." Louis said as he walked beside them alongside Violet. He then looked at Violet. "I call that a B+ performance Vi. You've done better."

Violet flipped him off.

"Fuck off." She said.

"B- then. Now, Clementine and Tails here, that was a solid A+ and A." Louis said, giving the grades in the orders that he said the names.

"Pssh, I'm sure we all deserve an A plus. All of us kicked ass." Tails said.

"Swear." Ajax said.

"Kicked butt." Tails said with a smile. Clementine couldn't help but look and think about how cute Ajax looked in the backpack.

Tails whistled, as expected, Ripjaw responded. Unexpectedly, so did Rosie.

(())

Tails opened the door and let everyone else in. Tails puts his backpack down. Ajax unzipped the sides and hopped out. He offers Tails a high-five, which Tails obviously gives. AJ walked over to them.

"You're good. With the monsters." AJ said to them.

"Thanks. Your friend over there is pretty good with them too." Tails said in reference to Clementine. Ripjaw walked over and sniffed AJ.

This startled AJ and made him elbow the dog. Ripjaw whimpered and then growled at AJ. Tails was quick to step in to calm him down.

"Easy Ripjaw. Easy." Tails said in an attempt to calm him down. It worked as Ripjaw stopped growling.

"What happened?" Clementine asked. This is when AJ ran off out of fear.

"Just a little misunderstanding. AJ panicked as he ran off. "Ripjaw startled AJ and….. well, AJ hit him."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. He just gets a bit jumpy with anything that sneaks up on him." Clementine explained.

"I can see that. As much as that's a pretty good habit to have, I got to say, for a place like here, he shouldn't be have to worry about that." Tails said.

"I'll talk to him." Clementine said. Tails nodded and started to walk away.

With Ripjaw and Ajax by his side he looked around. He saw that there were, excluding Himself, Clementine, AJ and Ajax, 16 teens. 10 human and 6 Anthros.

"Ajax, you ready to make some friends?" Tails asked him. Ajax looked at him with a nod. Tails looked around.

"Okay, shouldn't be too hard to make some friends." Tails said. He looked towards Azrael and walked over to him.

"That, was a pretty amazing display." Azrael said to Tails as he approached. "I'm really glad you're on our side."

"I do what I can to help." Tails said with a smile.

"Glad it was us you were helping, you were like a ninja with that thing." Azrael said.

"Thanks. At this thing for quite a while. I used to have an axe, but the blade broke so…" Tails said.

"Where did you even get that thing?" Azrael asked.

"A department store in Missouri. About 5 years before I was found here." Tails said. "More than enough time for me to teach myself how to use this thing."

"That's awesome dude. I hope you get to stay here, you and your kid." Azrael said.

"Thanks man, that means a lot. I'm going to see if I can mingle with the others. It would be good if I got on the good sides of pretty much everyone here." Tails said.

"See you round." Azrael said. Tails nodded and walked away. He looked around and then looked at Ruby. He walked over to her.

"Hey, Ruby right?" Tails asked.

"That's right." Ruby said.

"I never did say thank you for saving my life." Tails said.

"Don't mention it sugar. However, try not to pull the arrow out next time." Ruby said. Tails tilted his head in confusion.

"I pulled the arrow out?" Tails asked.

"Yeah. Marlon said that after he shot yo, you pulled the Arrow out of your stomach and kill the nearby Walker. It's sounded pretty Badass if you ask me." Ruby said. Tails was surprised at two things that she said. 1: Marlon was the one who shot him. 2: He apparently had the strength to rip an arrow out of himself and use it against a Walker.

"Wait, so That guy with a skunk tail haircut shot me?" Tails asked.

"I'm sure it was an accident." Ruby said.

"Accident my-" Tails looked at Ajax before turning back to Ruby. "-butt. I was on my horse minding my own business."

"He probably didn't see that, Understand that he's been through a lot, so has the rest of us, so he was probably a little jumpy." Ruby said.

"Yeah well, I'll be getting payback on him after that." Tails said as he folded his arms.

"I wouldn't recommend that. He kind of runs things here, and if you are looking to stay I'd say, play your cards right." Ruby said. Tails unfolded his arms.

"Fair enough." Tails said. "I hope Ajax wasn't too much trouble."

"Compared to the first boy I had to deal with, he was an angel. Kinda quiet, Constantly stayed out of reach, Refused to talk to anyone, but he wasn't much of a nuisance." Ruby said.

"The other kid? You mean AJ?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, bit the hell out of me." Ruby said.

"Swear." Ajax said. Ruby smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Bit the heck out of me. But, he's a nice kid any means well. Just need a little time to adapt." Ruby said. Onyx walked over and nudges Tails's with his nose. Tails turned around and started to brush his coat.

"He's a strong stallion, took us hours to get him in here." Ruby said.

"He's a friesian horse, they aren't exactly light, or compliant to strangers." Tails said.

"You a farmboy?" Ruby asked.

"Nope, grew up in the city." Tails said as he stopped brushing Onyx.

"Well, you could've fooled me. Not a lot of boys from the city know how to take good care of a horse." Ruby said.

"Don't admire my work just yet, I still have no idea what I'm doing. Improv is just my specialty." Tails said. Ruby giggled a little.

"Well, even if you don't know what you're doing, you sure know how to make it seem like you do." Ruby said.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Tails said with a smile.

"Nice meeting you Ruby." Ajax said.

"It was nice meeting you too little guy." Ruby said. Tails smiled as he turned to look at a the other kids. He saw a female hyena seemingly building or fixing something with a hammer.

He walked over to her, hopefully not interrupting her work. She heard him and started speaking without turning around.

"Just put the box right there." She said pointing to her right side. "I'll use them once I finish with this bunch." She said. Tails used this opportunity to toy with her.

"What? Not even a thank you?" He asked.

"I'll thank you once I-" She turned around and stopped talking. "Oh, I'm sorry. I've mistaken you for someone else. Are you gonna ask for a layout, lend a hand or ask who everyone is?"

Tails smirked and decided to keep toying. "Just looking for love sweetheart." He said it to make sure she knew he was joking. She caught on.

She laughed. "Oh boy did you come to the wrong place. Afraid my eyes are set on someone else, but I'll tell you something wise ass come you made me smile. Not too easy for newcomer. So if you've got any questions, I can put my work aside to answer them."

Tails smiled and looked around for a bit.

"What is it that you do here?" Tails asked.

"You can consider me the carpenter. I fix most of the things around here that have anything to do with wood." She said. "My name is Louise by the way, but most people call me Lou."

"Nice to meet you Lou. Most folks call me Tails." Tails introduced.

"A pleasure." Lou said.

"So, There are about 15 other kids here, mind telling me who they are?" Tails asked.

"Sure thing. We've got Marlon he's our group leader. Me personally, I can't stand him. He made some rash decisions that I personally would not make, but I can tell he's trying his best. Willy is normally on watch. Mitch, Aasim and Brody are normally on the hunting team. They've been having some pretty shit luck though, ever since Marlon pulled the safezone closer. Omar and Altai (a snow leopard wearing a desert camo boonie hat, with a grey track jacket and blue jeans) are our chefs. They take their jobs as chefs pretty seriously, and try to make sure everything tastes up to standard. Which pisses me off because it takes forever for my food to get ready." She said.

"Well, Look at it this way, at least it'll taste good. You can eat it or you can eat it right, it's only gonna cost a little patience." Tails said.

"You sound just like them." She said annoyed. Tails shrugged.

"Well, Ruby and Azrael are the medics, you probably know that by now. Mujina (a honey badger with a black hoodie and gym pants) is our veterinarian. If your pooch there if feeling under the weather, he's your guy. Don't let his age fool you, he's pretty good. Louis is the 'comedian' here. He's not very funny, but he still keeps things light. Violet and Tenn over there aren't very social. Ash over there (Yellow mongoose with a white jacket and black cargo pants) has A bit of a temper problem, so I'd be cautious with what you say to him unless you and end up with some broken teeth. And finally, we have my girlfriend, Jian (a white tiger wearing a Red bandana, Red tube-top Red, green and black-colored gloves, Black tracksuit pants and green scrunchies.) She's often on watch with Willy." Louise explained. Tails looked at everyone she pointed out, nodding as she explained. He noticed that Violet and Tenn were at what looked like graves.

"Who are the graves for?" Tails asked.

"Tenn's sisters, Sophie and Minerva, they…"

"You don't need to say anymore. I understand." Tails said.

"It happened last year, we never recovered their bodies, but we buried their belongings. It was kind of a hard time for us." Lou said.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Tails said.

"We have all had to suffer lost at one point, it's a daily occurrence now." Lou said. "Dinner time is almost here."

Tails nodded. AJ tugged on Tails's tail and got his attention.

Tails looked at him.

"What's up little man?" He asked her.

"I'm really sorry I hit your dog. I didn't mean to." AJ said. Tails smiled and kneeled down. Ripjaw looked at AJ with a tilted head.

"Hey, don't sweat it." Tails said with a smile.

"Can I pet your dog?" AJ asked.

"Sure, just let him sniff you first." Tails said. AJ nodded. Ripjaw walked over and sniffed him. He panted while wagging his tail. "You can pet him now."

AJ nodded and started to pet him.

"Woah." AJ said. Ripjaw licked his face as he was being pet. AJ recoiled a little.

"Yuck." He said.

"Hey, he likes you." Tails said. AJ giggled.

"Yo! Newcomers! Dinner's ready!" Louis said. Tails looked in Ajax's direction. Ajax was with the kid known as Mitch. After hearing it was dinner time, Ajax ran over to Tails and grabbed his arm.

"Come on Tails, it's time to eat." Ajax said. Tails smiled and walked with Ajax to the dinner table.

Tails made it to the dinner table and Ajax sat next to him. The twenty kids sat down however, only, 19 bowls were past out. Everybody except Clementine got a bowl of soup.

"Hey, where's Clem's bowl?" AJ asked Altai.

"Sorry little guy, but there wasn't enough food for everyone. Someone wouldn't have gotten a chance to eat." Altai said, he sounded like he felt bad.

"She has to eat something, she can't just-" AJ started to say.

"It's fine AJ, sometimes things like that happen." Clementine said. Tails looked at Clementine and then at his bowl. He himself was starving, but he didn't want anyone else starving. So, he made the hard decision.

"Hey, Clementine was it?" Tails called to get her attention. Clementine looked at him.

"Bon appetite." He said as he pushed the bowl to her. Clementine was surprised at this gesture.

"But, what about you?" Clementine asked out of concern.

"Yo insisto, I insist." Tails said. Clementine took a spoonful of soup.

"Thank you." Clementine said to Tails.

"De nada." Tails said with a smile. He masked it, but Tails briefly held his stomach, cringing from Hunger induced pain. Ajax was basically drinking out of the bowl. AJ looked at him and mirror his actions.

"That was a real nice thing you did." Brody said. Tails simply smiled and nodded. "Spend most of your time thinking about others do ya?"

"I guess you can say something like that." Tails said.

"Well, next meal, I'm making sure you get the 1st course." Marlon said.

"Thanks, that'll almost make up for you shooting me." Tails said with a joking glare.

"Oh yeah, I didn't really apologize for that did I?" Marlon said. Tails stood up and walked beside him.

"Look, I'm sorry that I- Ow!" Marlon exclaimed. He was interrupted when Tails pinched him in the neck.

"There, now we're even." Tails said with a smirk as he sat back down. Marlon chuckled.

"I think I'm finished." Clementine said with a smile. Ajax let out a burp. AJ burped soon after. Tails smirked and burped too.

"Got a little trio going on." Azrael said. Tails smiled.

Louis turned his chair around and pulled out a deck of cards.

"I think now is a good time." He said.

"Louise, Vi, it's time." Azrael said as Brody got up and said goodnight. Louise and Violet walked over to the table as Louis was shuffling the cards.

"We doing card games? Gotta warn you, I'm a bit of a prodigy in texas hold em." Tails said with a smirk.

"Good thing we're playing war instead." Louis said.

"What's that?" Clementine asked.

"Everyone gets a stack of cards, everyone flips them over. Whoever has the highest card wins." Tails explained.

"And the winner asks You or Clementine a question." Lou said. Tails raised an eyebrow, as did Clementine. "What? I want to get to know you."

"We all do." Louis said.

"And if one of us win?" Clementine asked.

"Then you can ask us, or each other. It's only fair." Azrael said.

"Sounds good, but what about Ajax?" Tails asked as he looked at Ajax, only to see that he was no longer next to him. Ajax was sitting across from AJ and next to Tenn.

"What about him? He looks like he made a couple of friends." Marlon said. Ajax waved over Mujina and Willy. Tails smiled at this.

"You can take your eyes off of him for a few minutes can't you?" Lou asked as Louis past out the decks.

"Yeah, it's nice to see kids acting…. well, like kids. It's been a while since that was an occurrence." Tails said with a smile.

"You said it Tails." Clementine said. Marlon, Violet and Louis flipped their cards over. Louise, Azrael, Clementine and Tails did the same.

Azrael had the highest card.

"Well, looks like I win." Azrael said. "So Tails. How did you get your hair like that?"

Tails felt his dreadlocks. "Is something wrong with them?" Tails asked.

"No, it's just, I Don't know if you noticed, but hair is kind of a pain in the ass to grow for anthropomorphics." Azrael said.

"Well, when you get sore biceps from scissors that can't cut through hair as thick as your fur without applying unnecessary force, you tend to let it grow out. Once it was long enough, I decided to twist them into dreads."

"I suppose that's pretty valid." Azrael said. Everyone flipped the cards over.

"Way to go me." Violet said as she had the highest card. "So, about AJ… Where are AJ's parents? You two don't really look related so…. What happened there?"

"They're dead. They were nice people, for the most part." Clementine said.

"That makes since, he's a nice kid." Tails said.

"For the most part." Louis said as he earned a glare from Violet and Clementine.

Everyone flipped a card. This time Clementine won.

"Hey, I win." Clementine said.

"Hey, you do. What do you wanna know?" Lou asked.

"Tails." Clementine called. Tails's ears perked up.

"Yeah?" Tails asked.

"Is Tails your real name?" Clementine asked.

"No, it's not." Tails said.

"What's your real name?" Marlon asked.

"Frankly, That's none of your business." Tails said.

"Come on, you can trust us." Louis said.

"I said none of your business." Tails said, lightly raising his voice, making most at the table flinch.

"Louis lay off." Azrael whispered.

"It's okay. It's cool. I promise you I'm not gonna ask again. It's cool nickname by the way, Tails." Louis said, trying to lighten the mood. Everyone flipped the cards over.

"I win." Lou said. She looked at tails and Clementine.

"Okay, this is for the two of you. Have either of you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend?" Lou asked.

"Really Lou?" Azrael asked.

"Oh my god." Violet said.

"What? It's a valid question." Lou said. "I already told Tails about my girlfriend, it's only fair if I asked him if he ever had one. Clem is just collateral damage."

"No surprise that i've never had a girlfriend. Thanks to nature having a twisted sense of humor when it came to my genetics, I couldn't exactly get within 12 feet of a girl without them calling me a freak." Tails said. He smirked throughout it.

"I'm pretty surprised at that you never had a girlfriend, you come off as a pretty charming guy." Azrael said.

"Their loss if you ask me. It might not mean anything coming from me, but I think those 2 tails are pretty cute." Lou said.

"That means a lot Louise, thank you." Tails said.

"Never had a boyfriend here." Clementine said.

"Never ever?" Tails asked with a smirk.

"Never ever." Clementine said smirking back.

Everyone flipped again. Marlon won.

"Ha, I win." Marlon said. He looked at Tails.

"So, Tails. Where did you learn how to fight walkers like that? Never seen anyone fight those things like you." Marlon said.

"My dad taught me. Came home one day covered in bruises and blood, he started teaching me Krav Maga that day. Pretty deadly stuff." Tails said. Everyone was surprised when Tails said, 'covered in bruises and blood.'

"Covered in bruises and blood?" Violet asked.

"Bullies." Tails simply said. Everyone put two and two together, and decided to move one. Everyone flipped over a card.

"Winner winner rabbit dinner." Tails said as he had the highest card.

"Anyone meet anybody famous?" Tails asked.

"Nope." Azrael said.

"Can't say that I have." Lou said.

"Pretty sure that most of those celebrities are hiding out in bunkers, living a life of luxury or something." Violet said.

"I met a professional baseball player." Clementine said.

"A hockey player helped me carjack a pickup truck once." Tails said. Every eye looked at him.

"What?" Tails asked. "Randall Griffin is a pretty cool guy. And they had it coming….. kinda."

"Okay… moving on." Louis said. They all flipped the cards over and Louis won.

"I am the greatest card player of all time." Louis said.

"Just ask your damn question." Violet said.

Louis looked at Clementine.

"You ever…. you know what, nevermind." Louis said.

"What, ask." Clementine said.

"It's not a fun question." Louis said.

"Ask." Clementine demanded. Louis sighed.

"Ever had to kill someone you love?" Louis asked. A brief silence occured.

"Louis." Marlon said.

"What? She wanted me to ask." Louis said.

"Lee…. his name was lee. It was the same day I found out my parents were dead." Clementine said.

They went quiet as Tails spoke up.

"I'm sorry for your loss. It sounded like a bad day." Tails said.

"Worst day of my life." Clementine said. Tails sighed.

"Well, that's gonna be it for me. I'm gonna turn in." Tails said as he stood up and started to head back. Ajax looked at him, whistled for Ripjaw and followed Tails, waving back at AJ who waves back.

(())

Tails, Ajax and Ripjaw walked into the room and followed his blood trail to his bed. He sat down and sighed.

"Are you okay Tails?" Ajax asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tails said as he rubbed his forehead.

"Hey, what's that?" Ajax asked as he pointed to the closet on the other side of the room.

Tails walked over and looked inside.

"Huh, will you look at that." Tails said. He walked out with an old barclay acoustic guitar.

"What is it?" Ajax asked as he tilted his head.

"This is a guitar. I used to play this all the time." Tails said with a smile. He started to tune it.

"What's it for?" Ajax asked.

"Well, you play music on it." Tails said. After tuning the guitar, he played a little Spanish rift, slow and calming.

He then started to sing.

"~Everyone knows la conejita. Her eyes are the perfect brown.

~Her teeth always showed such a bright and warm smile. And her-"

Tails stopped playing and took a moment to find a more appropriate word.

"~- Body was in perfect shape."

"Why did you stop for a second?" Ajax asked confused.

"Just go with it." Tails said. Ajax was getting sleepy from the song.

"~Her hair was smooth like butter. She stood in a confident stance….. and if I weren't a coward…" Tails slowed down as Ajax layed down and closed his eyes. "I'd probably ask for a chance."

Ajax had went to the sleep. Tails smiled at him.

"Buenas noches Chamaco." Tails said with a smile.

"I liked your song." Clementine's voice said from the doorway. Tails almost jumped from the sudden hearing.

"Oh, um… thanks." Tails said, lowering his voice so not to wake Ajax.

"So, you're staying in this room too?" Clementine asked. Tails nodded his head.

"Apparently. Not exactly the most settling place considering my blood is on the floor, but still more comfortable than most places." Tails said. Clementine and AJ look at the floor and saw the dried blood leading towards Tails's bed.

"Marlon said that he shot you, why did he do that?" AJ asked.

"Well, I probably looked like a bad guy at the time." Tails said. AJ frowned at that.

"He shouldn't have done that. It wasn't cool." AJ said.

"No, he shouldn't have. But, it was a mistake. A fatal mistake sure, but he still didn't mean anything by it." Tails said as he gave AJ a reassuring smile.

"Don't think I would be as forgiving if someone shot me with an arrow." Clementine said. Tails smirked. She looked at the guitar.

"Where did you find that guitar?" Clementine asked.

"In the closet on your side of the room." Tails said as he pointed to the closet. "It's been a long time since I've played the guitar, let alone see one. I'm surprised I still know how to play."

"I heard your song, did you write that yourself?" Clementine asked.

"Yeah. Just a little something to get my mind off this world." Tails said.

"Can we hear another song?" AJ asked. Tails looked at Ajax, who was still sound asleep.

"I uh….. Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow." Tails said. AJ looked like he was disappointed, but he nodded his head in understanding.

Tails stood up and put the guitar back. He then walked out the room, or at least started to.

"Tails?" Ajax's voice called. Tails looked at him.

"Yeah Bucky?" Tails asked.

"I don't want to sleep alone tonight." Ajax said. Tails let out a sigh and walked back in to lie down on the mattress. Ripjaw hopped onto the bed and placed himself where Tails's head was going. Essentially turning himself into a pillow. Ajax snuggled to his side.

"Goodnight Tails." Ajax said.

"Goodnight Bucky." Tails said with a smile. That's when he went to sleep.

((Dream))

Tails woke up in his bed back at home in Chicago. He was currently in his bedroom and sat up, resting at the foot of his bed.

"Never got to see this room." A voice said. Tails turned to the door and saw Shadow. "Looks nice, even after all these years."

"Looks about as good as I remember it." Tails said. "What I would do to see this place again."

"I take it you've got a lot of memories from this room." Shadow said, looking at the dresser where Tails had some stuffed animals. An Elephant, a raven and a dolphin.

"You don't normally have dreams when I appear unless you're conflicted. What's wrong?" Shadow asked.

"This new group I encountered, I feel like I shouldn't be here." Tails said. Shadow gave him a confused look.

"I thought you always wanted a group you could call your own. People you can rely on." Shadow pointed out.

"I know, but I feel like this won't be permanent. I don't know if you've noticed, but the groups I find always fall apart once I run into them." Tails said. Shadow sat next to him.

"Why would you say something like that?" Shadow asked.

"Most of the groups I've been in have fallen apart when I've stumbled across them." Tails said, remembering his past groups.

"Bad things happen all the time Miles. That's just how life works around here." Shadow said.

"I know, and I don't plan on giving up." Tails said. "Especially since they're the only kids I've met that didn't refer to me as a freak of nature."

"Good on you for keeping that mentality. You might need it. People often look to you for leadership. Miltown, Witherbury, Darwin city." Shadow said. "Who knows, you might be trusted with leadership in this place."

"I wouldn't count those chickens just yet, gotta wait until they hatch." Tails said. Shadow chuckled and ruffled Tails's hair.

"You know, you're gonna do fine. Ajax looks to you for guidance and you're giving him the best you know." Shadow said. "See me again sometime. This was nice."

"I will." Tails said. Shadow stood up and walked to the door. He looked at Tails.

"Before I go, you're middle name is Bakari? That's a nice name." Shadow said.

"My father takes pride in his ancestry." Tails said. Shadow smirked and walked out. Tails sighed and lied down on the bed. He closed his eyes.

((Real World))

It wasn't even sunrise when Ripjaw woke up and jumped on Tails. Annoyed, Tails attempted to shoo him away. Ripjaw was having none of it and kept jumping on him.

"Ugh alright fleabag, you win." Tails said as he got up. Ripjaw was panting happily with a wagging tail.

"Ripjaw wants to play fetch again?" Ajax said as he woke up rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah." Tails said. He noticed that Clementine and AJ were still asleep. He walked out of the room and whistled for Ripjaw.

The fox, the kangaroo and the dog were all soon outside. Ripjaw ran off to find a stick and came back with one.

Tails grabbed the stick and Ripjaw started to bark.

"Shut up." Tails jokingly said as he threw the stick. Ripjaw ran over to fetch it. As Tails was playing fetch, Ajax tugged on Tails's tail. Tails looked at him.

Ajax handed him an old looking coin.

"Is that my lucky coin?" Tails asked as he slowly grabbed it.

"It fell out of your pocket when you got up this morning." Ajax said. Tails grabbed the coin and looked at it. It was an old Chinese feng shui lucky coin.

Ripjaw came back and dropped the stick. Ajax picked up the stick and through it this time.

"You know, I can still hear my dad's voice from when first gave this to me?" Tails said. "Life is like this coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once." Tails said, imitating his father's voice. Ripjaw brought the stick back. Tails threw the stick again.

"Your dad sounds a lot like you." Ajax said. Tails smirked at this.

"Well, that's how dad's work. When your dad is a good man, they're supposed to make sure you turn out as good as, or better than them. The same goes for mothers." Tails explained, still playing fetch with Ripjaw.

"Then, does that make you my dad?" Ajax asked. Tails froze for a second.

"I…. I guess it does." Tails said with a smile. Ajax hugged his leg. Tails smiled and patted his head.

Ripjaw came back with the stick, placing it at Tails's feet, but lying down. Signalling that he was done playing.

"So, you've made quite a few friends since you've been here. Care to tell me about them?" Tails asked.

"AJ, Willy and Tenn are all very nice." Ajax said. "AJ likes to talk to me a lot. And then there's Mitch. He likes to make weapons. He's pretty cool."

"Oh yeah?" Tails smirked playfully. "And who is cooler, me or him."

"You obviously." Ajax said with a smile.

Ripjaw looked towards the door as Mitch walked out of the school.

"Hey, are you Tails?" He asked.

"That's my name." Tails said with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, name's Mitch. You're little friend there sure does like knives." Mitch said.

"Well, he is a big fan of pretty much anything with a blade. Pretty good with them too." Tails said.

"I can see that, by the way, Marlon wanted to see you." Mitch said. Tails nodded and walked upstairs with Ripjaw and Ajax.

He walked into the room and saw Marlon, AJ, Clementine and Rosie. Almost immediately, Ripjaw's tail starts wagging and he tried to get to Rosie. Tails was quick to grab the bandana around his neck to pull him back.

"Oh no you don't." Tails said as he held onto the bandanna. Ripjaw kept trying to get to Rosie.

"Ah ah! No. Sit." Tails ordered. Ripjaw panted and sat. Tails kept a tight grip on the bandana knot, so even if the bandana was to get loose, Tails still had a way of holding him back.

"Well, he's pretty well tried." Marlon said.

"Yeah, sorry about that. He got a little excited." Tails said, keeping the tight grip. "Anyway, preventing potential grandpuppies aside, what did you need to see me for?" Tails asked.

"Oh yeah, about staying here. I would like you and Ajax, along with Clementine and AJ here to be the newest members of the group. I feel like you guys show a lot of promise, and would be nice to have around." Marlon said with a small smile.

Tails looked at Ajax.

"You mean it? We can stay?" Ajax asked excitedly.

"Well I wasn't just gonna kick you out. Especially when you got karate kit right there." Marlon said.

"That's Krav maga Kit to you." Tails joked to him. However, he soon turned serious. "But, what about food? That's gonna be a problem with this many mouths to feed."

Marlon's smile dropped.

"Yeah I know, and if I remember correctly, you didn't get a meal that night. That's something I can't let happen again. I've already lost so much." Marlon said.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. It was my decision." Tails said, mixing sternness andreassurenes. Marlon looked at him and sighed. "Look, you're having trouble getting food, and I am willing to help."

"Has anyone ever told you being this nice is dangerous?" Marlon asked.

"Don't let my kindness towards a group that saved my life fool you, I'm definitely no pushover." Tails said. Marlon chuckled.

"Well, if you're willing to help, you can go with Clementine and AJ. They are going with Louis and Aasim to see if any rabbits got caught in the traps we set up in the hunting grounds. Or you could go with Brody, Louise, Jian and Violet upriver to go fishing." Marlon said as he pointed to a hand drawn map that Tails just noticed.

Tails thought for a moment before making his decision.

"Louis and Aasim." Tails said. Clementine looked at him and nodded. Marlon gave him the map.

"Here you go, don't want you to get lost. We want you to come home in one piece." Marlon said.

"You mean we can stay?" Ajax and AJ said at the same time.

"Well I wasn't gonna just kick you out, especially since you've got a real life Snake eyes with you." Marlon said. Tails gave an optimistic look.

"I always considered myself more of a Ninjak anthro." Tails said.

"I don't not get that reference, but I'll ask about it later." Marlon said.

"Probably be best if you did, it is a mouthful." Tails said, he started to walk out. Ripjaw, Clementine, Ajax and AJ followed him.

(())

As they walked towards the door leading to the courtyard, Clementine grabbed Tails's wrist.

"Hey." Clementine said to get his attention. Tails looked at her in confusion.

"Here, I want you to have this." She said as she handed him an energy bar. "I know it's not much, but, I couldn't thank you enough for giving me your food."

Tails lightly pushed it back.

"That isn't necessary." Tails said. Clementine put it in his hand.

"I insist." Clementine said. Tails looked at the energy bar and grabbed it.

"Gracias." Tails said.

"You're welcome." Clementine said.

Tails smiled and opened the energy bar.

"Tails? Can I go with Louis and Aasim?" Ajax asked him. Tails looked unsure for a moment, but gave a nod. Ajax's tail wagged and he ran over to Aasim and Louis.

(())

Tails and Ripjaw walked with Brody, Violet and newly joined by Louise to the river.

Tails finished the last of the energy bar before stuffing the wrapper in his pocket. He was in the back of the group, working as the security.

"Ya know, maybe we should all go on a road trip together." Brody smiled. "A road trip?" Violet asked, clearly disapproving

"As long as it doesn't involve a helicopter, I'm all for it." Tails said with a smirk.

"Where would we trip to?" Tails asked.

"Florida, we could watch the sunset for hours." Brody said. "And get skin cancer, fun." Violet said sarcastically.

"Way to look on the downside Violet." Tails said.

"Huh, that's a human problem. Fur baby, protects my skin from harsh UV." Louise said with a smirk. Tails rolled his eyes.

"I've been to Florida once. Went parasailing." Tails said.

"I had it recorded on my camcorder, but unfortunately a broken a helicopter crash." Tails said.

"You had a camcorder?" Louise asked.

"Yeah, Mama used to tell me doing a lot of stupid shit, so when I was old enough to hold a camera, she let me Record all the stupid shit me we're doing vacations."

"That actually sounds fun." Violet said.

"Except for the helicopter crash." Louise said.

"There was this one time my Dad and I grabbed to gators to piss off so we could get them to fight. Karma was not on our side that day."

"That also sounds fun." Violet chuckled.

"It was, until the gators decided to team up with one another and try attacking us. Did you know gators can run pretty damn fast?" Tails asked.

"...are there gator anthros?" Violet asked.

"I'm not to sure, I know there are crocodile anthros. There was this This one guy in our group named vector, he was an crocodile. Annoying as hell too. I cannot unhear his voice shouting find the computer Room in an intercom voice." Tails said. "But, I'm sure if there's a crocodile, there's an alligator."

Louise approached them with spears and tossed them to the others. Tails took his.

"Let's hope we actually get something this time." Brody said

"I'm a natural at catching fish." Tails said, placing the spear over his shoulder.

"Good then, we'll need someone like you." Brody smiled.

Tails walked over to the river and stuck his spear in the water. He caught a fish.

"Nice dude. First catch of the day." Vi said

Tails took the fish off, threw it into the air and caught it in his mouth and swallowed it whole.

"That was...interesting." Brody said.

"What, I'm hungry?" Tails said with a shrug.

"You ate it uncooked..." Brody said.

"Never had sushi before?" Tails asked.

"...nope." Brody said.

"Well sushi is basically raw- OH NO YOU DON'T. " Tails said as he quickly stuck his spear in the water and caught a fish.

"How'd you get so good at this?" Brody asked.

"Easy to get good at catching for when your stomach is empty." Tails said as he tossed the fish in the bucket.

"Well, it's a great skill to have."

"I'm glad you agree."

Louise pulled Violet to another part of the river, leaving Tails and Brody to catch fish.

"Ya know, sometimes I wonder why violet hates me so much...and I think it has to do with the day Sophie and Minnie passed." Brody said.

"You couldn't have known what was going to happen would happen, you can't blame yourself for that." Tails said as he caught some more fish.

"...yeah. Okay. But violet won't ever see it that way"

"Mind if I tell you a story?" Tails asked.

"Go ahead." Brody said.

"When I was first learning how to fight, my dad put me in front of a punching bag and said, 'hit it as hard as you can.' And I listened, but everytime I did, my dad would slap me in the back of the head." Tails caught another fish. " So he could help me see a message that I was blind to. Each punch I threw represented how hard I was on myself, and the slap to the back of my head was me hitting myself as a result. He was basically teaching me that the hardest opponent you can face with yourself."

"That's….. That's pretty deep." Brody said.

"My mama had a saying, The hardest punch to Dodge is the punch you throw at yourself." Tails said catching five more fish. "Every time someone gets killed and I feel like it's my fault, I just play that in the back of my head like it's a record."

Brody glanced at him with a look of sympathy.

"Your mom sounds like a really smart lady." Brody said. Tails looked back with a smile.

"I'm sorry about…. You know, Marlon shooting you." Brody said.

"Don't worry about it. Pinched him in the neck and got even." Tails replied.

"He's been kinda jumpy lately. Ever since what happened with Sophie and Minnie. Pulling back the safe zones. Always getting angry. He has a tendency to do dumb things on impulse." Brody said.

"I noticed. But, this hell can bring out the worst in people. Which means a lot of stupid and regrettable decisions." Tails said. Brody looked at Tails and was staring at him for a minute.

"Tails. Can I trust you?" Brody asked. Tails sort of froze for a second.

"If I'm being honest, I'm not sure. That's up to you." Tails said. "Can't exactly tell someone who I don't know if they can or can't trust me."

"Well, I trust you enough to decide I should tell you this. Someone at least needs to know." Brody said. Tails looked at her confused.

"You remember when I spoke about Minnie and Sophie?"

"I heard Louise interrogating you on that before we left." Tails said.

"The day they disa-"

"Brody! We got an issue." Louise yelled, interrupting Brody.

Brody walked towards her. "What's up?"

"Our traps have been tampered with. All the fish are gone." Louise said. Brody gained a slight panicked look. Tails walked over as well, hearing what had happened.

"This is bad Brody." Louise said.

"Geez Louise, I thought that this was supposed to be an invitation to a party." Violet said. Tails started to investigate the broken traps.

"Hmm….." He said. Tails moved over and investigated the area. The three girls were arguing amongst themselves, and Tails was getting annoyed by it.

"Hey." Tails said to get their attention. They kept going. He called Hey again, raising his voice. Again, they didn't listen.

"Hey!" He shouted. They stopped and looked at him.

"I know that this is a bad situation, but we shouldn't turn on each other as of yet." Tails said in a calm voice.

Violet shot him an unapproved look, Louise threw her hands up and walked away, and Brody looked down, folding her arms.

By the time Tails was done investigating, the area, he found a playing card, an empty can of spray paint, and a butterfly knife. He walked back over.

"Any of the kids use spray paint?" Tails asked.

"Not that I know of." Louise said.

"What about a butterfly knife?" Tails asked. Violet shook her head. Tails put the knife in his pocket.

"Who said you get to keep that?" Louise asked.

"The guy who found it. Besides, I gotta keep this to ask if anyone's lost it. A butterfly knife isn't exactly something anyone would like to leave behind." Tails answered.

"Okay, fairpoint." Louise said. Tails walked back to the shack, and saw Aasim, Clementine, Louis, AJ and Ajax walking their way.

Ajax ran over to Tails and hugged his legs.

"Tails, I caught a rabbit." He said.

"Did you now? Awesome." Tails replied with a smile as he pat his head.

Clementine smiled. "He kept showing everyone, it's so adorable." She said.

"Aw, now I wish I was there." Tails said. Tails placed down a bucket full of fish.

"Caught quite a lot of fish there." Louis said.

"Too bad not even that is enough. We couldn't catch enough rabbits for tonight. Our traps got tampered with." Aasim said.

"Same happened here. The fish traps are fucked." Violet said.

"So I'm not going insane." Louise said.

"What are we supposed to do for food? Eat rocks?" Louis asked.

"We can't eat rocks." Aj said.

"I'm aware." Louis said.

"We should head back, Marlon needs to hear about this." Aasim said.

"We can't leave now. We definitely don't have enough to feed everyone this time." Louis said.

"Don't know if you remember last time Brody, but someone didn't get something to eat." Louise pointed out.

"You don't have to remind me. Pulling back the safe zone was Marlon's call, but-"

"But what? The safe zone keeps getting pulled back, and food is getting more and more scarce, we are gonna have to get outside the safe zone eventually." Louise said. Ajax tugged on Tails's pant leg to get his attention.

"I don't like them fighting, what are we gonna do?" Ajax asked. Tails went silent for a moment.

"Brody, this is gonna be a long winter if you don't cut the crap." Louise said.

"Guys, can you not argue?" Tails said in an attempt to defuse the situation, but he was ignored.

"Cut the crap? The only thing I'm cutting is the long list of deaths at this school!"

"How about I ask Sophie and Minnie if you're doing a very good job. You've been acting real strange ever since they died, I'm starting to think that you had something to do with their deaths." Louise said. Louis and Aasim looked stunned at what was said.

"W-what?" Brody asked.

"You heard me!" Louise said.

"Both of you! That's enough!" Tails said getting in between them.

"...why would you say something like that?" Brody asked, looking heartbroken.

"Maybe because everytime I bring it up, you constantly try to persuade me that I've lost my mind." Louise said. "Almost as if you were hiding something." Louise said.

"Louise, that is enough." Tails said.

"No, she needs to-"

"Don't make me repeat myself." Tails warned. Louise glared at him, but kept silent. "Now, I don't know what happened before I came here, but I do know turning against each other isn't gonna solve anything."

"... Maybe Louise is right." Violet said.

"That's not a priority right now. You guys arguing is gonna get nowhere." Tails said.

"Tails is right." Clementine said.

"Please." Ajax spoke up. "I've seen what happens between people who argue like this. I don't want that to happen again."

Everyone looked at Ajax and then Tails. Louise lightly scoffed before walking off.

"Whatever." Louise said as she started to make her way back to the school. Aasim followed her.

Tails looked at Brody who looked like she was gonna cry.

"Brody, just head back to the school. I'll catch up, okay?" Tails asked. To his surprise, Brody gave him a hug. A tight hug.

Tails hugged her back, patting her back as she sniffled into his chest.

"Hey. Hey. It's gonna okay." Tails said. After a minute, Brody stopped crying and released the hug.

"Thank you, Tails." She said. She started to walk out of the room and then went back to the school. Grabbing the bucket of fish on her way out.

"He handled that well." Louis said.

"Give it a second." Ajax said.

Once Tails felt like he was out of earshot, he punched the wall and made his fist bleed.

"Fuck." He said.

"Swear." Ajax said. Tails shook his hand from slight pain.

"Does he normally punch walls to the point where his knuckles bleed at times like this?" Violet asked Ajax.

"No, usually his knuckles don't bleed." Ajax said.

"Alright. We still need to get food for the group." Tails said.

"You're just gonna move on from that?" Louis asked.

"This isn't my priority right now." Tails said as he pointed to his bleeding hand.

"Okay Wolverine." Louis said. Tails rolled his eyes.

"We could go to the train station. There's still a lot of food there." Ajax said.

"How do you know about the train station?" Clementine asked.

"Ajax and I went there. Got a duffel bag full of supplies before Marlon shot me." Tails said.

"Those weren't all the supplies. There was a…. Um?" Ajax looked at Tails.

"Go ahead." Tails said.

"Shit ton of food there." Ajax said.

"How come he gets to swear?" AJ asked Clementine.

"Not the time AJ." Clementine said.

"I can change what I said to Boat load." Ajax said.

"That's fine Ajax, going to the train station is a good idea, but how did you get past the walkers?" Clementine asked.

"We rang a bell at the entrance. Muertos swarmed to it, giving us time to full up a bag with some supplies." Tails said.

"That's a…. Smart idea." Violet said.

"Lady I ran into in Tennessee, Molly, she did that a couple of times." Tails said.

"Did you say Molly?" Clementine asked.

"I take it that you know her?" Tails asked.

"I'll tell you that story later, but we should head to the train station." Clementine said.

"Hold on, that's pretty far outside our perimeter." Violet said.

"It's worth it." Tails said.

"Are you sure there was food?" Louis asked.

"If you guys don't want to come with, you don't have to. But I'm getting us that food, with or without you." Tails said folding his arms. Clementine looked at Tails and then back at the others.

"I'm in." Clementine said.

Violet and Louis looked at each other, then back at Tails and Clementine.

"Okay fine. Lead the way." Violet said. Tails pulled out his map, looked at it and then started to walk to the train station. The others following behind.

Nightfall occurs and Tails and the others arrived at the train station entrance.

Tails lowered himself to the floor as they arrived.

Tails looked and saw all the walkers that were surrounding the train.

"Looks like their numbers increased since our last arrival." Tails said. Clementine looked and saw the building.

"That's the building." Clementine notices the red R. "Don't remember that Red R."

"Tails put that there. So we can come back if we need supplies." Ajax said.

"That….. I don't know whether that's a good or bad idea." Louis said.

"It's a risky one. Things either go really smooth or far south. It's fifty-fifty." Tails said.

"What's the plan?" Violet asked.

"One of us needs to grab that bell and get on top of the train to distract the Muertos." Tails said.

"Louis. I vote Louis." Violet said. Louis looked at her with a WTF look.

"Um… hold on. I'd like to make an alternate suggestion." Louis said.

"Which is?" Tails asked.

"Can't you do it?" Louis asked.

"I could, if you want to miss out on your moment to shine." Tails said. Clem and Violet looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Don't want me stealing your thunder, do you prince charming?"

"You had to go there." Louis said. He chuckles and grinned. "Okay, you convinced me. But if I die, I'm making sure walker louis eats the three of you first."

"Aim for my neck. You're teeth won't bypass my leather jacket." Tails jokes. Louis rolls his eyes.

"I'll distract them until I see you guys reach safe cover. Then I'll try to redirect the smelly patrol to give you guess a chance to sprint inside the building." Louis whispered.

"I'll signal you when we're safe." Clementine said. Louis takes off the bell and looked at Clementine.

"Good luck." Louis said as he walked to the train. Ajax climbed on Tails's back and when into the backpack, upper body sticking out.

Tails gave him a thumbs up, Ajax gave one back. As Louis started to bang on the train and distract the walkers, Clementine and Violet moved forward to cover, sneaking and taking care of stragglers. Tails pulled out his trench knife and began to follow them.

After sneaking to the barrels, Clementine waved down Louis. Louis waved back and walked to another part of the train to distract the walkers.

Tails watched as the walkers moved, but one stayed on the stairs.

"That one's mine." Tails said. He walked towards it slowly.

"Oi Suzy." Tails said. The walker turned to look at him, but Tails put a knife through its eye. He looked at the girls.

"Go on inside. I'll make sure muertos don't get close." Tails said.

"I'll make sure Louis doesn't get bitten." Violet said.

"Can I go with Clementine?" Ajax asked. Tails looked back at him.

"Okay, stay safe okay? You got Mjolnir?" Tails asked. Ajax held the hatchet up. "Okay, go."

Ajax hopped out of the backpack and walked with Clementine and Aj.

(())

Clementine walked into the building and Ajax checked around.

"No muertos." Ajax said.

"Thanks." Clementine said. She walks in, still checking, despite Ajax already doing so.

As she walked into the room with the trap door, Ajax noticed a couple of bags.

"These will be perfect." Clementine said.

"Clementine, these weren't here before." Ajax said a little nervous.

"What do you mean?" Clementine asked.

"This stuff wasn't there when me and Tails were here. It doesn't feel like this will go well." Ajax said. Clementine looked at Aj, who found a lamp that worked.

"Okay, then we'll move quickly. We won't stay here for long." Clementine reassured. Ajax nodded and walked to the trap door. He pulled out his pistol, holding it with the hatchet.

AJ pulled out his gun as well. They look at each other and nod before going down.

After what felt to Clementine like an eternity, AJ walked to Clementine with a jar in his hand.

She smiles.

"Good job AJ. Is there more?" Clementine asked.

"Ajax is passing them to me." AJ said after nodding.

"Tell him to keep them coming."

AJ nodded and started passing more food to Clementine. After bagging about two, a rooster walked in holding a shotgun.

"Stand up nice and slow." The rooster said.

Clementine glared at him, but stood up.

"Don't yell, don't try anything, and I guarantee your safety." The rooster said. A human male, balding head with heterochromia, walked in after him, smoking a bible page walked in as well.

"I'll keep her in check, get the food Abel." The rooster said. Abel walked over and grabbed one of the duffle bags.

"What do you want?" Clementine asked.

"Just looking for food. Same reason you're here." Abel said. He puts out the cigarette.

"You and your friends made quite a bit of noise to get in here. That red R out there and the noise wasn't hard to follow." Alano (the rooster) said.

"You live close by?" Abel asked her. Clementine looked at him. "Someone had to have known about this place already, otherwise the red R wouldn't be there."

"I'm not telling you anything." Clementine said. Alano glared at her.

"Be that way then." Alano said. After a moment of packing, Abel started talking again.

"You look a little young to be on your own. You got a group?" Abel asked. "You, plus the three outside, I figured, maybe more?"

"I said, I'm not telling you anything." Clementine said.

"Fine. We can play it like that if you want." Alano said as Abel continued to fill the bag.

"We worked hard to get that stuff." Clementine said. The facial expressions on the two men showed they didn't care.

Ajax popped up with a jar of rice and was startled by the two men.

"Well hey there squirt." Alano said. Ajax aimed his gun at Abel. Alano aimed at Ajax.

"Be careful who you aim guns at squirt. Guns have a tendency to go off." Alano said.

"Don't steal from us." Ajax said.

"We ain't stealing. This isn't yours." Abel said.

"I can kill you." Ajax said. Alano chuckled. Under the door, Ajax purposely stood in Aj's way to keep him from being seen.

"Two of us. One of y-" Alano was interrupted when a door creaked open. He looked at the door.

"Go check that out. I can handle this pipsqueak." Abel said. Ajax growled at him. Alano went to check it out.

"Now listen. You're gonna quit pointing that gun at me, and let me go my merry. You understand?" Abel said, pointing more intensely.

Alano grunting and a shotgun blast distracted both of them.

"Ajax! Get down!" Clementine said. Ajax does exactly that and Clementine pushes Abel out the window. Walkers dragged him out as he shouted from aggression.

"You piece of shit!" Abel shouted. Gunshots rang out. Tails walked into the room.

"Quickly! Fill up that bag!" Tails said.

Violet soon ran in.

"What the fuck!?" She silently exclaimed.

"Just grab a bag and fill it up." Tails said as he started to fill up a bag with them.

As soon as both bags were full, Ajax went back into the backpack. Tails ran out of the building, let the two ladies out first, before grabbing the shotgun beside Alano's bleeding body.

They started running. Back to the school. Killing walkers that were in the way.

"What happened in there?" Louis asked.

"Just move." Tails said.

"I'll tell you on the way." Clementine said. The quanto kept running.

(())

They arrived back at the school. Tails made it to the school, and opened the door for everyone.

They all walked in. The other kids noticed, including Brody and Marlon. Tails noticed they were arguing beforehand.

"Took y'all a while." Ruby said to the group.

"We were seconds away from getting a search party together to find you guys. What took you so long?" Louise added.

"Great works are performed by not strength-" Tails placed one of the bags on the table. "-but by perseverance."

Willy looked at the bags.

"Guys, look! Check it out! Food!" Willy said.

The group all walked to them.

"Holy shit. That's a lot of food." Ash said.

"Real observant Ash." Mitch said jokingly. They all looked at the duffle bags.

Willy looked up at Clementine.

"You're our savior clem." Willy said. Clementine waved it off.

"Don't thank me, It was Tails's idea." Clementine said.

"This was a team effort. Couldn't have done it without Clementine, Louis and Violet." Tails said.

"Violet and Louis never brought back this much food." Jian said.

"Neither have you." Louis retorted. Ajax had hopped out of the back and had already grabbed himself a jar of honey.

Brody and Marlon walked over.

"Where did you find all this?" Brody asked.

"The old train station. Clem and Tails knew where it was." Louis answered.

"Outside the safezone? That's pretty ballsy." Azrael said with a smirk.

"We'd have even more. But we ran into the creeps that fucked up our fish traps. And the rabbit traps." Violet said. Brody eyed her with shock.

"Creeps. What creeps?" Brody asked.

"Clementine saw one of them smoking some of those nasty ass bible cigarettes." Louis said.

"The other one was a rooster with a crack in his beak." Violet added. Brody looked even more worried.

"Did they follow you?" Brody asked.

"Gut shot one of them with their own shotgun and Clementine pushed the other one into a herd of muertos." Tails said.

"It was awesome." AJ said.

"Scary, but awesome." Ajax added before continuing to eat the jar of honey."

"If they survived or not, they won't last long." Clementine said.

"You attacked them? What the fuck! If they survive you know they're coming back for revenge." Brody said. Tails looked at her confused. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Clem and Ajax were at gunpoint. They would have shot them if I didn't do anything." Tails said.

"Tails and I made the right call." Clementine added.

"Bullshit. What if there are others? You don't know what people are capable of out there." Brody said. Tails glared at her before moving his collar, hood and fur, showing a nasty scar close to his neck.

"Think again." Tails said before releasing.

"And to think I trusted you." She said as she walked away from Tails. "I just can't….. I won't… Just, Not again….. Fuck!"

Marlon walked over.

"What the hell is going on?" Marlon asked.

Brody turned to face him. "They took them outside the safezone. They SAW someone. You know what that means!"

"Enough!" Marlon exclaimed. Brody stopped talking. "It just means that there's a hungry guy out there looking for food. It's happened before. You are overreacting." Marlon said.

"You can't be serious." Brody said. Marlon grabbed her arm.

"Let's go somewhere and talk about this." Marlon said. Brody glared and pushed him to the ground. She then looked at Tails.

"If ANYTHING happens... I am holding you responsible." She said pointing to Tails. She storms off. Tails let out a sigh. Marlon stood up.

"Tails, I know you said you were willing to help get food but…. Shit." Marlon said.

"I didn't see another way." Tails said.

"I know but... I gotta go." Marlon said. He walked off. Tails clenches his fist and walked to the gate. He walked opened it, walked on the other side of the wall and leaned against the wall.

"She shouldn't have said that to Tails." Ajax said, watching the whole thing.

"Said what?" Louis asked.

"That he don't know what people are capable of. Tails has been through alot." Ajax said.

"We've all have." Violet said.

"No, Tails has been through different stuff." Ajax said.

"How different exactly?" Clementine asked.

"Well, Tails had to fight in a war when he was taking care of me. Two groups tried to kill each other, both tried to force tails to side with them, he refused. And….. a lot of people died." Ajax said. Clementine kneeled down to Ajax's height.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" She asked.

"Can you please? He always walks away when he feels angry because he hates me seeing him like that." Ajax said. Clementine nodded and walked to where Tails was.

Tails had his hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall.

"Hey, you feeling alright?" Clementine asked. Tails looked at her.

"Yeah. I'm okay. Just, needed to stand outside the wall for a minute." Tails said calmly. Clementine stood next to him.

"A week and a half from now, it will be the 6th year I've had Ajax in my life." Tails said. Clementine looked at him.

"Ajax 'Frank-Oliver' Francis III. Name like that just rolls right off the tongue." Tails said with a chuckle. "Call him Bucky though. Nickname I gave him."

"What's his story?" Clementine asked.

"I was in Colorado with a good friend of mine, Tikal. My only friend left from my first group. We set up camp 50 miles away from a place called Fort Carson when Ajax's older brother came to us, begging to let him rest there. He was running for days, we weren't gonna blow him off. He had Ajax with him at the time, so we let him rest there. He had been running for days. When I woke up the next morning, he died in his sleep and turned. Bit Tikal right in her neck. I had to do what I had to do." Tails explained. Clementine looked down on the ground.

"Then what happened?" Clementine asked.

"Well, due to Fort Carson already having a lot of mouths to feed, so they let me get some supplies and I went on my merry little way. Then I ended up in Tennessee. The worst place I've ever been. War between two settlements. A group of kill over compromise maniacs and a group of cannibalistic murderers. The syndicate and the Resurrected. Killing each other, and lots of people around them for resources. So I started a Rebellion against both after refusing to side with either one." Tails said. Clementine looked at him.

"You started a rebellion against them?"

"Sounds crazy right? 13 years old, leading a bunch of people to fight against two armies. But, I can come off as very charismatic." Tails said with a smirk.

"I can tell." Clementine replied.

"But, Being in that Rebel group came with a lot of people not willing to listen to a kid, as well as people who thought I was an idiot. Been betrayed quite a few times. Have gotten petty revenge a few times, a shit ton of pro revenge other times. And did so without hesitation. Little thing to be known about me, I'm betrayed, or wronged, I take it personally. So I normally jump at the chance of revenge if Ajax can't see me." Tails said. Clementine looked back at the gate. "One thing I learned about fighting in a war like that. You're gonna end up going through two choices. Bad or worse. Never a good outcome, just lesser of two evils that you can't see until after you've made a choice. I know you've probably been through the same, but please remember that next time people forget that you're just one person."

Clementine went silent for a moment before looking back at Tails. Taking in everything that Tails said.

"Don't worry, I will." Clementine said with a smirk.

"Want to head back inside?" Clementine asked.

"In a minute." Tails said. He looked at Clementine. "You can go if you want."

"Okay." Clementine said as she walked to the gate. She walked back inside and saw Ripjaw and Onyx playing.

She chuckled and looked at Ajax running to her with a drawing in his hand.

"Look what Tenn drew." Ajax said showing the drawing. Clementine looked at the picture and smiled upon seeing herself and Tails in the picture.

"This is nice." Clementine said with a smile.

"I agree. Is Tails okay?" Ajax asked.

"He just needed a little time to himself. He'll be okay, I'm sure." Clementine said. Ajax smiled and hugged her.

"Thank you Clementine." Ajax said. Clementine hugged him back.

"You're welcome." Clementine replied.

(())

After about 15 minutes, Tails walked back into the courtyard. He sighed as he walked over to Ajax, who was chatting with Azrael. Before he reached him, Louise tugged his arm.

"Hey, Tails, you got a few seconds?" Louise asked.

"What do you need?" Tails asked.

"I want to apologize. The hyena you saw at the shack, that wasn't me. I'm just…"

Tails remained quiet with a raised eyebrow to let her finish, but making it clear that he had something to say.

"This is around the same time Sophie and Minnie disappeared. Sophie was my best friend and with her gone, I always suspected Brody had something to do with it. I shouldn't blame her for something that probably wasn't her fault." Louise said.

"With all due respect, I'm not the one you should apologizing to." Tails said.

"I know, but still, I shouldn't have let my anger get so bad that you had to step up. I hope you can forgive me." Louise said. Tails paused for a moment.

"No hard feelings, but make sure you also apologize to Brody. Even if your true colors showed for a second, it'll give her some reassurance that you regretted saying what you said." Tails said. Louise looked at him and nodded.

"Tails, I'm ready to head to sleep." Ajax said. Tails nodded and whistled for Ripjaw, who ran to him with a wagging tail. Tails petted his head as he walked to the room.

He walked back to the room he was sleeping in. Ripjaw hopped onto the bed and curled into a ball at the head of the bed. Tails sat down and Ajax climbed next to him.

"Tails, what did you mean when you said, if your true colors show?" Ajax asked.

"You heard that?" Tails asked. Ajax nodded.

"Well, you'll see this a lot. But, in bad situations, the worst comes out in people. The same happens for people who are angry. You don't really know someone until you deal with them angry." Tails said. Ajax leaned against Tails a little bit.

"Is that why you never want me to see you when you're angry?" Ajax asked.

"Kinda. Don't want you to pick up on some of the bad habits I get whenever I'm angry, like punching or kicking a wall." Tails said.

"Didn't you kill someone before due to anger?" Ajax asked.

"Lots of times, mostly for revenge. A lot of people that I did it to deserved it, but, other times, I was blinded by anger and it clouded my judgement." Tails said.

"How do you know if someone deserves to be killed?" Ajax asked.

"It's hard to determine that. Mostly, if you think twice about it, they don't deserve to die." Tails said, struggling to find the correct words.

"Um, okay." Ajax said.

"Let's not discuss killing people, okay? I'd like to keep you from thinking like that." Tails said.

"Okay." Ajax said. Ajax lied down and started to drift off to sleep.

Tails patted his head and went to sleep as well, wrapping his tail around Ajax.

"Goodnight Bucky."

"Goodnight Tails." Ajax said.

(())

"Tails, wake up." Ajax whisper yelled to him. Tails was already fidgeting in his sleep due to a nightmare he was having. He woke up in a shock. Upon waking up, he heard voices in the vents.

Clementine woke up and heard them as well, waking her and Aj.

"You guys hear that too?" Clementine asked.

"Yeah." Tails said. He twitched his ears to get a better idea of what he was hearing, but the thunderstorm was limiting what he heard.

"I'm gonna go check it out." Tails said as he got up.

"Ajax, got your gun?" Tails asked. Ajax pulled out his M9 beretta. "Keep it close."

Tails walked to the door.

"Clementine, if I'm out for too long, see what happened." Tails said.

"Got it." Clementine said as she stood up. Ripjaw hopped out the bed and followed Tails.

Tails walked out the room and searched for the source of sound. He followed it to a door that led to the basement. He checked the doorknob and, to no one's surprise, it was locked.

"Of fucking course it locks from both sides. Won't be able to pick this." Tails said. Then he looked at Ripjaw as he remembered that Ripjaw was in the basement at one point.

"Ripjaw, where's the cellar door boy? Lead me to the basement." Tails said. Ripjaw barks and leads Tails outside.

Onyx was stomping his hoof on the ground and moving like he was frustrated and uncomfortable.

"Even Onyx knows something isn't right." Tails said. Ripjaw tugged Tails's pant leg and got his attention. Tails followed Ripjaw to the cellar door. He saw that it was locked.

"Good job boy." Tails said. He kneeled down, pulled out two bobby pins and began to pick the lock. Upon unlocking the lock, he takes the look off and put it in his pocket. He opens the cellar doors and walked down the stairs. Ripjaw followed him down the stairs.

As he and Ripjaw walked, the voices were clear. It was Brody and Marlon.

"God Damnit, Brody! We don't even know for sure it was them!" Marlon said. Tails and Ripjaw crept closer. "He also said one of them was gutshot and the other was bitten, which means they aren't gonna bother us."

"You know they're not alone. Those bastards are back and it's only a matter of time before they find us. You know that!" Brody retorted.

"I don't know shit. Neither do you. Goddamnit Brody, keep it together."

Tails was now close enough to hear all of this.

"There you go again, getting so mad!"

"What do you want me to do?! You're making me mad!"

"We have to tell the others. About what you did."

Marlon saw Tails briefly in his peripheral vision.

"Who's there? Show yourself." Marlon said, shining the light his direction. Tails walked out into sight.

"T-Tails…" Brody said.

"What's going on here? Why are you two so loud in the dark?" Tails confronted.

"Brody and I were just talkin', go get some sleep. You deserve some shut eye. You had a busy day." Marlon said. His tone of voice was basically trying to tell Tails to back off.

"You're yelling woke up Ajax, and he woke me up." Tails said.

"I'm s-sorry about that. I didn't think anyone could hear us." Brody said.

"Why don't you tell me what's going on?" Tails said as he folded his arms.

Marlon and Brody looked at each other.

"It's really none of your business. Go back to the dorm." Marlon said as he stood in front of Brody. Tails glared at Marlon, and did not move.

"T-Those men you met at the station, we got history with them." Brody said coming out from behind Marlon.

"Brody..." Marlon said angrily. Brody stopped talking and rubbed her arm.

"Don't listen to her Tails. She's acting crazy." Marlon said.

"Brody... say what you have to say." Tails said, taking Brody's side. "It has something to do with Sophie and Minnie doesn't it? You were gonna tell me something about them back at the shack."

"I was gonna tell you that Marlon let them take the twins, them and their people." Brody said.

"Damnit Brody." Marlon gritted.

"The twins? I thought muertos got to them." Tails said with a bamboozled expression.

"That's the story we told everyone." Brody said as she looks at Marlon.

"Shut up." He said gritting his teeth.

"Cause marlon was so ashamed of what-"

"I said SHUT UP!"Marlon said, Indirectly striking her head with the flashlight.

Brody stumbled back, holding her head from shock.

"Uh…. what'd you say?" She said as she removed her hand, revealing a gash on her head, a dilated eye, and her blood running down her face. She fell back against the water heater and slid down onto the floor.

"Shit! What did you do?!" Tails exclaimed.

"Brody, I'm so sorry. I... i..."

"Get the fuck back Marlon." Tails told him. Marlon ran off to find medical treatment.

Tails took his sleeveless hoodie off and placed it on her head.

"Brody, brody look at me. You're gonna be okay, alright?" Tails said to comfort her.

"W-who's there? I can't see…" Brody said looking in Tails's direction.

"Tails. Remember?" Tails said as he grasped her hand. Brody was slowly losing consciousness. "Come on. Quédate conmigo, stay with me." Tails said.

Brody opened her eyes again.

"T-tails? You have to warn Clementine. She's in danger. Her and Aj."

"What danger?" Tails asked.

"The…. the raiders. If they come back, Marlon said that he'd let them take them. L-like he did with Tenn's sisters." Brody said said, tears forming and voice breaking.

"I promise you Brody, I won't let anyone get taken away." Tails said in a soft tone.

"I…. I knew I could trust you….." She said with a small smile. She started coughing.

Tails held her hand with both of his.

"No te vayas... don't go." Tails said saddened. She slumped over and died.

Tails went silent for a moment.

"Descanse en paz (Rest in peace)." Tails said. Marlon ran off.

"Ripjaw! Capture!" Tails shouted. Ripjaw pounced and bit Marlon's ankle at the stairs. Marlon kicks Ripjaw off and ran to the cellar door. Tails chased him, only to be closed in.

"Marlon! Damn it Marlon open this door!" Tails exclaimed.

"I can't let you tell the others." Marlon said as he ran off. Tails peeked through the cracks and reached for one of his blades, that weren't on his back.

"Of course I left them, Shit." Tails said. Then he checked his pockets and remembered the butterfly knife.

He pulls it out and used that. He started to move the latch. Thunderstruck, startling Tails, making him drop the knife.

He heard Brody's walker growl and picked the knife back up. He successfully moves the latch and opens the door.

Walker Brody comes behind him and pulls him back down the steps making him fall over as she climbs on top of him. Ripjaw bit Brody's shoulder and attempted to pull her off him. This gave tails enough time to grab the butterfly knife again. He reverses the positioning forcing him on top of Brody.

"Lo Siento Brody." Tails said. He stabbed Brody in the forehead, killing her for good.

Seconds later, Tails hears commotion outside.

"Shit. Ajax." Tails said. He makes his way to the doors and opened them as the flashlight went out.

Ajax was pointing a gun at Marlon.

"Where's Tails!?" Ajax demanded.

"Ajax, put the gun down, please." Clementine said worried.

"Ajax, listen to Clementine. Don't do this." Azrael pleaded.

"Get this fucking psycho away from me!" Marlon demanded, he sounded scared.

"Where is he?!" Ajax demanded.

"H-he's in the basement, he murdered Brody." Marlon said. Ajax was stunned for a moment.

"W-what?" Clementine asked. Aj looked at Marlon in disbelief.

"He's lying. He has to be lying." Aj said, sounding in denial.

"Why Brody?" Aasim asked.

"Did you see it happen?" Louise asked.

"Is she a walker now?" Mujina asked.

"How do you know it was him?" Jian said.

"¡Eso es mentira, Marlon!" Tails could be heard shouting.

"Tails." Ajax said happily. Everyone looked at Tails and Ripjaw walking their way.

"You killed Brody! You hit her so hard her head split open!" Tails said. Tails had a hand on his torso as there was an injury there.

"That's a lie! Look! He's covered in Brody's blood. I saw you kill her!" Marlon shouted. Tails looked at his own hands, which were covered in Brody's walker blood. Tails looked up, knowing how this made him look, but his expression didn't change.

"Jesus Tails." Clementine said.

"What did you do?" Willy asked.

Ajax took his eyes off Marlon to see if Tails was covered in Brody's blood. Once he did, Marlon took the gun from him and kicked him back. Mitch helped him up.

"We let you into our camp! And this is how we are repaid! Guns pulled and murder!" Marlon shouted.

"Well FUCK! THEM!" Marlon said. He pointed the gun at Tails.

"You gonna shoot me a second time, then do it! Better than what you plan on doing to Clementine and AJ!" Tails exclaimed.

"The hell is he talking about?" Clementine asked.

"Those men I pushed out the window, Marlon was gonna make another deal with them!" Tails said.

"Shut up!" Marlon threatened.

"Brody told me: Marlon was gonna trade Clementine and Aj in exchange for safety, the same way he did Sophie and Minnie!" Tails shouted. Shocked looks were among the crowd.

"Oh my god." Jian said.

"Shut the fuck up Tails!" Marlon threatened.

"Let him Talk!" Ruby intervened.

"Brody told me this and that's when he killed her!" Tails exclaimed. A moment of silence happened before Marlon spoke up again.

"Aw come the fuck on! We only met these 'raiders' when Tails went to that damn train station! Coincidence! Shame I don't believe in such a thing." Marlon said, he started walking around, but never noticed Tails inching closer to him.

"Tails wouldn't just sell us out like that." Ruby said.

"And how do you know? Huh!" Marlon asked.

"Look at who he has to take care of. Do you really think he would risk messing anything up?" Ruby said pointing to Ajax. "When he first saw me, he didn't even attack me, and we all know how scared we were that he would."

"And think about how scared we were when the adults left. I'm the one that kept everyone from that feeling of fear for so long! Pulled us out of that fear and gave us Courage again! So who are gonna believe!? Fox McCloud and his little fucking Lunatic?! Or me? Your friend?" Marlon said as he pointed the gun at Tails again.

"He did help us get food." Mujina said.

"What good is that when a bunch of outsiders are just gonna come and take it?" Ash said.

Tails didn't break eye contact. This could end very badly, and Ajax saw this. He looked at the two standing closest to him. Mitch and Louis.

Ajax made the choice and tugged Mitch's sleeve.

Mitch looked at Ajax.

"Mitch, don't let him do this." Ajax said. Mitch was surprised by this.

"I'm sorry little dude, but my hands are tied." Mitch said. Ajax looked at Tails and then back at Mitch.

"This is wrong. Don't let this happen." Ajax said. Mitch looked at Marlon and clenched his fists.

"Marlon, put the gun down." Mitch said.

"Mitch! He killed Brody! He won't walk away from this." Marlon said. Mitch loosened his fists and looked at Tails.

"I'm sorry Tails. But I have to trust Marlon." Mitch said. Tails looked at Mitch.

"Trusting a liar like this never works out for anyone. Just look at Brody!" Tails said.

"Take that back!" Marlon said. Tails looked at Marlon, and glared, as if to say, 'I'm ready.'

Mitch stepped in front of Tails and pulled out his knife.

"Put the fucking gun down." Mitch said.

"You don't know what you're doing dude." Marlon said.

"Just drop the gun, we can talk this out without violence." Mitch said.

"Marlon, Stand down. Be reasonable." Azrael said.

"Can't you fucking realize that I'm trying to protect you!" Marlon exclaimed. He started to wave the gun around.

"By waving a gun around!? That's not protecting anyone. You plan on trading me and Aj in. If that's your definition of protection, then I want nothing to do with you!" Clementine said, making it known that she believed Tails.

Before Marlon could say anything in retaliation, Tails tackled him to the ground.

He attempted to aim the gun at Tails, but Tails grabbed his wrist, slammed Marlon's hand against the ground until he let go. He gets off of Marlon and kicks the gun away.

Tails then picked Marlon up by his collar.

"Tell them the truth asesino!" Tails threatened and pushed him back. Marlon went quiet. "Just tell them Marlon. Don't make this any worse."

"I... I'm sorry. I wanted to get them, stage some kind of rescue. Honest Tenn... I couldn't, I was just to afraid." Marlon said. He was now broken into a confession.

"What are you talking about?" Ash asked.

"I gave them away damn it!" Marlon exclaimed. "And I was gonna do the same to Clementine and AJ. I wanted to protect all of you."

"Brody knew this and you killed her?" Tenn asked.

"You told him they died." Mujina said, clearly protective of Tenn.

"I wanted to save all of you... Sophie. Minerva." He started crying.

"I know what it feels like to be in a situation as a leader where the odds aren't in your favor, and you have to make the hard decision for the rest of the group. And let me tell you, good intentions or not, you are not safe from the consequences."

"We trusted you marlon. They trusted you. Sophie was my best friend." Louise spoke up. "How could you give her and Minnie away?"

"I never wanted this. I didn't mean to kill brody. I wanted to protect all of you." Marlon said.

"Marlon, we can make this right. It will get better in the end." Tails tried to reassure.

"No...won't." Marlon said. After a brief silence he spoke again. "Just let me... Become a bad memory. Just give me that... Please." Marlon begged.

"Marlon, I don't know you from a hole in the ground but look around you. These guys are your family. Without a doubt the last you've got left. You owe it to them to redeem yourself. You need to atone for what you've done." Tails said.

Before Marlon could say anything else, a bullet went through the back of his head as he falls dead in Tails's arms. Tails looked to see Ajax with the gun in his hand, for he was the one that shot him.

Everyone else looked at Ajax as well, shocked from what just happened. Ajax looked at everyone as he lowered the gun

"W-what?" He asked. He looked at Tails. "I didn't think twice."

((End Credits))

Voice actors:

Tails

Michael B. Jordan

Ajax

Kate Higgins

Louise

Laura Bailey

Azrael

Troy Baker

Shadow

Travis Willingham

Jian

Claudia Black

Ash

Ray Chase

Altai

Dante Basco

Mujina

Phil LaMarr

Clementine

Melissa Hutchinson

AJ

Tayla Parx

Aasim

Ritesh Rajan

Abel

Alex Fernandez

Brody

Hedy Burress

Louis

Sterling Sulieman

Marlon

Ray Chase

Mitch

Robbie Daymond

Ruby

Ali Hillis

Omar

Keith Silverstein

Tennessee

Zaire Hampton

Violet

Gideon Adlon

Willy

Justin Cowden


End file.
